Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

.THETHIRD AGE OF THE MARTYR CHURCH. 353theoguidance. She maintained the ancient faith Jy, and discipline, yet tempered with thaconsideration which the full possession of thtruth alone bestows.29 Thus she received backwithout hesitation those who returned from heresyor schism, as well as those who had fallen in theconflict with persecution.For another question of great importance whichher guidance determined was that concerning therebaptisation of heretics ; and in this she wentagainsthe judgment of Cyprian with his council,of Firmilian, and of other bishops. It had beenthe custom that those who had received baptismamong heretics, provided it was with the properrite, should, when they sought admission into theChurch, be received only by an imposition ofhands, not by the iteration of baptism. Andthough Cyprian and a great majority of Africanbishops, through their horror of schism andheresy, wished to modify this rule, and to insistthat baptism given outside the Church was invalid,Pope Stephen resisted, and maintained theancient rule, with the decision that nothing savewhat had been handed down should be done..m comtatumnos adversus improbos modo supervenerunt repentina subsldia: sed antiquahsec apud nos ^f severitas, antiqua fides, disciplina legitur antiqua;Qmunao,* " .nisi iamfidei de temporibus illis mutuatus fuisset: quari m laudiimdegenerem fuisse maximum Crimea est." IJpist. Cleri Eprian. 31.II.AA